The Cushing Academy point guard wanted to study the Orange program in its most elemental state. With players stripped of the demands of fall semester classroom work and with students on summer break, Syracuse players practiced in an incubator of pure basketball. Joseph came prepared to study each player at the guard position, to measure his game against the candidates he would compete with on a daily basis should he choose the Orange.

"I definitely paid attention just so I could see where I fit in," Joseph said of those August practices, held before SU left on its Canadian summer tour. "You gotta do your research."

Joseph, too, was one of a handful of guards the Orange program had been pursuing. SU coaches told him, he said, that they were prepared to take one guard from the Class of 2014 in a sort of "first-come, first-served" scenario. They told Joseph that he was their first option and invited him to take the first visit.

"They told me they wanted an official visit as soon as possible," he said.

Much has been made of Joseph's early Orange allegiance. He told friends and coaches his freshman year of high school that SU was his dream school and that he planned to one day play for the Orange. But Joseph insists his SU selection was not the foregone conclusion people considered it to be.

He verbally commited to SU immediately after that August visit, but required a calculated study of the Orange in action to be sure. He observed, he said, that Tyler Ennis was the only pure point guard on the SU roster and that Trevor Cooney and Ron Patterson were so suited to shooting guard they would never convert to lead guard and infringe on his potential playing time.

And as an Orange fan, Joseph has kept meticulous track of SU's backcourt rotations over the years. He believes, he said, that SU functions best when two players with point guard skills pair in the backcourt. He cited Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters as pertinent examples. Joseph wants to play immediately, not necessarily as a starter, he said, and believes that he and Ennis can co-exist as backcourt mates.

"There was a need for me," he said, "which is why they recruited me so heavily."

Joseph plans to sign his national letter of intent next month, likely with little flourish. He and his brother Desmond Copeland, 24, will attend SU's Orange Madness on Friday. Joseph's parents accompanied him on his August recruiting trip and Joseph wants his brother to see the Syracuse campus and share the experience.

He will play this season for a prep school loaded with guards, said Cushing coach Barry Connors. Idris Taqqee, a 6-4 guard, has committed to St. Bonaventure and junior Jalen Adams is drawing recruiting interest from D-I programs like Minnesota, Providence and Conneticut. Connors calls Joseph the team's leader and its most important ingredient.

"I anticipate his game continuing to evolve and his maturity continuing to evolve," Connors said. "The kid's upside is tremendous. He's dripping with potential. He's just like a puppy dog, he's so raw. It hasn't all come together yet. He's not even close to what he's going to be."

Joseph, who said he was 6-3 and weighed 178 pounds, concedes his game needs polish. He wants to deepen his 3-point shooting range, to add strength without sacrificing quickness.

"I'd say the biggest thing is my maturity, my approach to the game," he said. "I've gotten by with my natural ability. I have to learn not to take plays off, to value every possession."

He is certain he selected the proper destination for his basketball skills. He loved watching SU's summer practices, loved soaking in the Melo Center ambience. He recalled guard coach Gerry McNamara's "ridiculous attention to detail." He came away from his recruiting trip convinced he was joining a basketball fraternity of like-minded individuals.

"They're all basketball junkies and I just love it," Joseph said. "I follow some of the (SU) guys on Instagram and they all work hard. They love the game as much as I do and will do whatever it takes to get better."